Rotten Tomatoes/Critical Reception Thread

[DKDetective]

Pete Travers, formerly of Rolling Stone, whose judgment I very much trust, gave this a glowing review:
Review: 'The Batman' is a mesmerizing mind-bender that grabs you hard and never lets go

"The Batman" aims high and even when it misses the mark, the film's ambition is undeniable. By returning the Batman to his DC Comics roots as the "world's greatest detective," Pattinson distinguishes himself from other movie Batmen and puts him in league with the best of them, Michael Keaton and Christian Bale.

Veined with dark humor and chilling menace, "The Batman "is a fever dream that inexorably pulls you in. There's a chance you'll hate it. This movie is unapologetically a disrupter. It's also pure cinema, a grenade of image, sound and potent provocation ready to blow.

 

[cryptic name]

Pete Travers, formerly of Rolling Stone, whose judgment I very much trust, gave this a glowing review:
Review: 'The Batman' is a mesmerizing mind-bender that grabs you hard and never lets go

Travers is definitely someone who’s opinion I take seriously.

 

[Iceman]

The “tomatometer” is not a ranking. It’s a percentage of critics who liked a movie. A movie with strong themes and ideas that bucks the trend of current films will never score as highly.

Yep, not challenging viewers too much while still being good is the easiest route to getting close to 100%, as all the Toy Story films show.

 

[emielaen]

To be fair, the average score for The Batman is at 7.9 and Black Panther's was 8.3. That is pretty damned close in my estimation.

The score for this film in holding pretty strong in the upper 80s and and the average rating is holding at about 8.0. That is damned impressive. It is the best response a DC film has gotten The Dark Knight Rises a decade ago.

Sure. I more so meant for my own perspective of it. If I walked out of The Batman thinking it was similar to BP in quality I’d be disappointed. BP isn’t all that imo.

 

[DKDetective]

Travers is definitely someone who’s opinion I take seriously.

I love that he basically worked this into his review:

 

[BatLobster]

I will say, I don't always agree with Travers in general-- but what I enjoy about him is he's someone who really does exude a love of big movies like this and he has a track record of loving and really 'getting' Batman movies IMO. He doesn't approach this franchise or genre with the same level of cynicism and skepticism that you see from other critics.

 

[Gothamsknight]

Pete Travers, formerly of Rolling Stone, whose judgment I very much trust, gave this a glowing review:
Review: 'The Batman' is a mesmerizing mind-bender that grabs you hard and never lets go

"It's also pure cinema, a grenade of image, sound and potent provocation ready to blow." man, what a beautiful quote. Thursday can't come soon enough!

 

[MasterBoss]

Nothing wrong with 87% at all.
Infinity War sits at 85% and thats in my top 5 CBMs of all time.

I thought Infinity War was a collection of great scenes that was really clunky strung together. I found Endgame to be much better.

I certainly hope that The Batman flows a lot better than Infinity War.

 

[Gothamsknight]

I think The Batman is gonna be better than both. Or maybe I'm biased haha.

 

[flickchick85]

Pete Travers, formerly of Rolling Stone, whose judgment I very much trust, gave this a glowing review:
Review: 'The Batman' is a mesmerizing mind-bender that grabs you hard and never lets go

He and I have pretty much the exact same taste in movies, so yay. I miss when he was at Rolling Stone, as his reviews came out earlier. I was looking for his thoughts all day yesterday.

 

[DKDetective]

He and I have pretty much the exact same taste in movies, so yay. I miss when he was at Rolling Stone, as his reviews came out earlier. I was looking for his thoughts all day yesterday.

Same! As @BatLobster mentioned, he is also one of the best and fairest critics when it comes to big movies. He does not have the instinctual distrust of blockbusters and superhero films that some others have.

 

[emielaen]

I think The Batman is gonna be better than both. Or maybe I'm biased haha.

Ditto on both parts lol also just much more confident in Reeves than the Russos

 

[Brotherhood]

As much as I love The Dark Knight, I do wonder whether its extreme high regard at this point in time is due to its cultural impact as opposed to the film itself.

 

[TheSmoothKnight]

Nice little streak on RT, 13 positive reviews in a row. They still have 9 positive reviews to add and of course the two negative reviews.

 

[The Joker]

As much as I love The Dark Knight, I do wonder whether its extreme high regard at this point in time is due to its cultural impact as opposed to the film itself.

If cultural impact had that sort of effect then Batman 1989 would be regarded as one of the all time greats.

 

[Captain Tired]

As much as I love The Dark Knight, I do wonder whether its extreme high regard at this point in time is due to its cultural impact as opposed to the film itself.

I agree. Like you, I'm not necessarily saying TDK is an example of it. But I often have a hunch (and nothing more concrete than that) that the amount of people who watch a highly regarded film with a lot of hype behind it, and who are willing to say aloud that they think it's mediocre or just okay, are fewer in number than the amount of people who will watch that same film and go along with the majority opinion and not wish to buck the trend or be seen as abnormal for not particularly rating it.

Btw I'm wonder how long I should wait before succumbing to ego and pointing out that I was probably right. I think right now is still just a teensy bit premature.

For some reason I picture this settling somewhere between 85 and 87%

Dunno why. Just a gut feeling I guess. It feels like the sorta movie that would get into that bracket.

 

[Milkman95]

Nice little streak on RT, 13 positive reviews in a row. They still have 9 positive reviews to add and of course the two negative reviews.

Yes, it's currently sitting at 87% with 186 reviews, so you're saying they need to add 11 more to that number?

 

[fake]

Yes, it's currently sitting at 87% with 186 reviews, so you're saying they need to add 11 more to that number?

Joker has almost 600 reviews on RT. It is the most reviewed movie in the history of that site. About 400 reviews is the norm for most movies. But after about 150 reviews, the score fluctuation is low, maybe 2 points either direction.

 

[DKDetective]

If cultural impact had that sort of effect then Batman 1989 would be regarded as one of the all time greats.

It's not an all or nothing situation. You still have plenty of Burton devotees around here despite 89 and Returns' flaws. I mean throughout The Dark Knight trilogy, there were many that considered that Burton did elements better. There are many who have nostalgia goggles for the Burton films and arguably that is in part due to its cultural impact.

I love The Dark Knight, but it is a flawed masterpiece with many weak points, its strengths just do their best to make you forget those. As much as I love it, you have to wonder if some of these critics are remembering more its legend rather than the film itself.

For instance, you have the convoluted plotting of Joker's plan and Nolan's staging of much of the fisticuffs and action is serviceable at best. Then there are Bale's unfortunate choices regarding his Batvoice. You also have Nolan's typical exposition dumps and extras delivering bad jokes. I think some folks out it on a pedestal.

 

[Milkman95]

Joker has almost 600 reviews on RT. It is the most reviewed movie in the history of that site. About 400 reviews is the norm for most movies. But after about 150 reviews, the score fluctuation is low, maybe 2 points either direction.

Okay, so it will probably finish between 82-90% then?

 

[Dr.]

As much as I love The Dark Knight, I do wonder whether its extreme high regard at this point in time is due to its cultural impact as opposed to the film itself.

IMO, TDK is an intrinsically good movie — irrespective of its cultural impact. A better example might be Black Panther: a fine movie, but not great (IMO). However, BP's cultural impact was undeniably enormous.

 

[The Joker]

It's not an all or nothing situation. You still have plenty of Burton devotees around here despite 89 and Returns' flaws. I mean throughout The Dark Knight trilogy, there were many that considered that Burton did elements better. There are many who have nostalgia goggles for the Burton films and arguably that is in part due to its cultural impact.

I love The Dark Knight, but it is a flawed masterpiece with many weak points, its strengths just do their best to make you forget those. As much as I love it, you have to wonder if some of these critics are remembering more its legend rather than the film itself.

For instance, you have the convoluted plotting of Joker's plan and Nolan's staging of much of the fisticuffs and action is serviceable at best. Then there are Bale's unfortunate choices regarding his Batvoice. You also have Nolan's typical exposition dumps and extras delivering bad jokes. I think some folks out it on a pedestal.

Burton devotees around here.....I don't get your point. We're on a superhero message board. Of course there's devotees to it around here. There's Snyder fans around here, too. There's all sorts of fans here. Its a hive of comic book fans. But we're a minority here. We're talking about cultural impact which means to the greater audience not a collection of superhero fans on a message board.

What you call weak points and flaws are not flaws to everyone. I have no issue with Joker's plan, Bale's bat voice, or any of the exposition type dialogue. That's not to say I don't see flaws in it, but those ones are not mine.

For years I listened to detractors here saying that Ledger's passing was what had TDK held in such high regard. Here we are 14 years later, the nostalgia and sentiment of his untimely passing is long past and it still firmly holds its number one status with the masses as strongly as it did back in 2008, even with so many good CBM's that have come out since. The competition is a lot more fierce now than it was back in 2008. But TDK has never wavered in holding the number one spot with the masses.

Even with the slew of MCU fans who fight to say their movies are the best. There's no fear or apprehension of saying TDK ain't all that. Its as common as rain to see someone say it around here. Every time a half way decent CBM comes out there's versus threads made for them against TDK here because someone is just dying to see it knocked off its throne.

 

[flickchick85]

It's not an all or nothing situation. You still have plenty of Burton devotees around here despite 89 and Returns' flaws. I mean throughout The Dark Knight trilogy, there were many that considered that Burton did elements better. There are many who have nostalgia goggles for the Burton films and arguably that is in part due to its cultural impact.

I love The Dark Knight, but it is a flawed masterpiece with many weak points, its strengths just do their best to make you forget those. As much as I love it, you have to wonder if some of these critics are remembering more its legend rather than the film itself.

For instance, you have the convoluted plotting of Joker's plan and Nolan's staging of much of the fisticuffs and action is serviceable at best. Then there are Bale's unfortunate choices regarding his Batvoice. You also have Nolan's typical exposition dumps and extras delivering bad jokes. I think some folks out it on a pedestal.

I put TDK on a pedestal. It is my favorite CBM of all-time. But it is not perfect, I don’t consider it a definitive screen interpretation of Batman, and it can be topped. It took the genre forward in a big way, but not to its zenith.

 

[BatLobster]

TDK is just a freaking electric movie, man. There is a specific energy that film captured that is frankly to this day, hard for me to really put into words. It's not something that can be recreated. 'Topped' is a different discussion, and that's where it gets more subjective IMO.

That doesn't mean its flawless, and by the sounds of it, neither is The Batman. I think TDK's status is well-deserved, and it will/should continue to be celebrated years from now.

The whole idea of it being "better in people's memory than it actually is"....I actually take issue with that. Because to me, the best films are the ones that live on and take that kind of a hold in your mind. That initial viewing experience leaves an impression on you that you can never quite shake off. And Nolan is an exceptional filmmaker precisely because of his ability to construct films that do just that. That is the magic of cinema. Sure, you can go back and pick apart some flaws in retrospect. But you really, really can do that for just about any movie. Especially movies that you watch over and over and over.

 

[fake]

TDK is just a freaking electric movie, man. There is a specific energy that film captured that is frankly to this day, hard for me to really put into words. It's not something that can be recreated. 'Topped' is a different discussion, and that's where it gets more subjective IMO.

That doesn't mean its flawless, and by the sounds of it, neither is The Batman. I think TDK's status is well-deserved, and it will/should continue to be celebrated years from now.

The whole idea of it being "better in people's memory than it actually is"....I actually take issue with that. Because to me, the best films are the ones that live on and take that kind of a hold in your mind. That initial viewing experience leaves an impression on you that you can never quite shake off. And Nolan is an exceptional filmmaker precisely because of his ability to construct films that do just that. That is the magic of cinema. Sure, you can go back and pick apart some flaws in retrospect. But you really, really can do that for just about any movie. Especially movies that you watch over and over and over.

I watched TDK recently at a screening in IMAX when theaters were just re-releasing old IMAX movies to get audiences in.

The movie holds up completely as a propulsive bit of filmmaking and you literally do not notice the time at all. Even the last bit which feels disconnected works better now than when first watching it.

It will never cease to amaze me that WB allowed Nolan to make a Batman movie where the third act signature setpiece has nothing to do with Batman, and is all about people debating the prisoner's dilemma. And you are unable to look away from that. Batman has no role to play in whether the boats will blow up or not, he is just as passive an observer as the audience. It is downright brilliant and audacious for a 200M budgeted movie.

One other thing I noticed was just how much of the movie exists as a meme now, for the first like 90 minutes of the movie, every frame seemed to be a meme which we see used online everyday.